INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett declared Tuesday as National Night Out Day.

The annual event brings together members of the community, first responders, and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department representatives to help prevent crime. 

Kenneth Sullivan, pastor of New Direction Church, said, “Being African American in spaces such as in our community, urban spaces, I think there is a history in terms of a little bit of tension between officers and the communities they serve. This goes back years, and so there’s always opportunities for us to come together and to really hear each other.”

Sullivan thinks National Night Out and other community events can help, more needs to be done to establish trust within the community. Having religious leaders on the table alongside police officers can help.

“I do believe there are certain people who are triggered when they see police officers. You see a recent shooting with Sonya Massey (in Springfield, Illinois). We’ve seen countless number of African American men killed at the hands of law enforcement. We’ve seen a spike of shootings here in Indianapolis. So, I do think there’s an opportunity for us to come together.”

Shantel Rodger respects the police but doesn’t trust them. “I’ve had issues I’ve been pulled over by a Black cop, and it was scary. I’m a young Black female, and I was scared. I called and texted my mom before I got in the car and said, ‘I was scared and he was a character.’”

Rodgers was given a traffic ticket but remained shaken up from the interaction.

Police and city leaders hoped National Night Out could be a start to more interactive events within the community, a way to prevent crime by building community trust.

Officer Tommy Thompson from IMPD said, “Those officers go in day in and day out. It doesn’t matter if you’re Black, white, brown. We go out and fight hard for those members of those communities because there are people there who can’t. Maybe they’re older or scared. We go there and fight hard to ensure sure they can be safe.”

For Thompson, he said, he serves the public because its his community, too. “I’ve seen so many hardships from people here that have lived their entire lives in Indy, and I’m here to fight for them,” he said.

National Night Out has been going on for 41 years. Indianapolis joined 17,000 other communities nationwide and worldwide for Tuesday’s National Night Out.